Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Infrastructure

The Indiana Toll Road and the Dark Side of Privately Financed Highways

By Angie Schmitt and Payton Chung | Nov 18, 2014 | 21 Comments

This is the first post in a three-part series on the Indiana Toll Road and the use of private finance to build and maintain highways. Part two takes a closer look at how Australian firm Macquarie manages its infrastructure assets. Part three examines the incentives for consultants to exaggerate traffic projections, making terrible boondoggles look like financial […]

President Obama’s Hollow Push for Infrastructure Investment

By Tanya Snyder | May 14, 2014 | 20 Comments

This afternoon, President Obama stood by New York’s Tappan Zee Bridge and made a speech pressing Congress to do something about infrastructure investment. It’s part of his Infrastructure Week push for Congress to pass a fully funded transportation reauthorization bill. Many other groups are spending this week sounding the same horn. “If they don’t act […]

Stuck With No Bike Lane? Your Complaint to Congress Is Three Clicks Away

By Tanya Snyder | Nov 20, 2013 | 3 Comments

A few months ago, we told you that Building America’s Future had released an app called, “I’m Stuck!” It allowed you to send a quick email to your Congressional representatives, telling them that you were stuck in traffic, or on an overcrowded bus or a delayed train, and you wanted Congress to approve more funding […]

Senators Warner and Blunt Take Another Stab at an Infrastructure Bank

By Tanya Snyder | Nov 19, 2013 | 2 Comments

You’d be forgiven for being cynical about big plans in Washington to create an infrastructure bank. President Obama has been talking about it for years. Every so often he comes out with a new big “push” for infrastructure investment, and it includes a bank of some kind. Multiple Senate bills have proposed an infrastructure bank […]

Wisconsin’s Misplaced Priorities on Display as Green Bay Bridge Sags

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 27, 2013 | 5 Comments

In yet another reminder of what happens when states ignore their existing infrastructure while plotting massive road expansions, a section of heavily traveled bridge in Green Bay Wisconsin is “sagging” nearly two feet. Authorities have closed the bridge, which carries about 40,000 vehicles a day, after frantic calls from drivers. USA Today carried this transcript […]

“The Twilight of the Appropriations Process”: House GOP Gets Its Knives Out

By Tanya Snyder | Jun 19, 2013 | No Comments

Constrained by Paul Ryan’s budget and the sequester, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation and HUD passed a $44 billion spending bill for 2014 – 15 percent lower than 2013 enacted levels. The bill contains $15.3 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Transportation, also 15 percent below enacted 2013 levels and amounting to […]

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